I would like to take the opportunity of this special day to express how much the influence of Free Software to my life is. Back in 2005 I started to use Linux and because I had no clue I looked for support in the German-language Kubuntu community. This is how I jumped into and got an idea about Free Software. Kubuntu and the people were fun, after some time I was able to give support and not only take it. I helped out with other things, started to attend conferences (usually also in combination with a Kubuntu community booth). I met amazing people who became really really good friends.

We just released the Beta 1 of the upcoming ownCloud 6 series! It is spiced up with two new features. The most exciting one is probably collaborative editing of ODF documents. However, I do not want to write about it, ownCloud Documents is already covered by Frank.

The other feature that just went inside is revamped LDAP settings in a wizard-like fashion. Now, the minimum number of required fields you need to fill in is *drumrolls* 3! Of course without loosing the flexibility you are used to. Providing the LDAP server host, a user DN and a password is usually enough. ownCloud will take care of everything else. Some settings will be suggested, you can just accept them, and more will be auto-detected.

New wizard-like LDAP configuration

Kubuntu 13.10 has been released a day before yesterday! Hooray!

I did an upgrade a little bit prior to the final release, and everything went smooth and works properly. There is just one thing where I needed to put hands on manually. This is my Apache (used for development only) configuration which seemed to be incompatible with the version brought with 13.10. This however is nothing Kubuntu specific, but related to all Ubuntu-flavours.

Photo: Dominik Wagenführ, CC-BY-SA

Last weekend I attended Ubucon, an Ubuntu user conference organized by the German Ubuntu community. I was giving a talk about, surprise, ownCloud. If you are interested in my talk, please find the slides in PDF on the program page. Beware, they are in German! Those who have seen my talk, please give your honest feedback on the Ubucon feedback page!

A detail that is not on the slides is that I was wearing my "I am the first one" Jolla T-Shirt (like this). It provoked the question about an ownCloud mobile client for SailfishOS. I want to answer it here as well.

ownCloud 5 Enterprise Edition, released earlier this month, is now available for Univention Corporate Server (UCS) – the innovative heart for the cost-effective operation and simpler administration of server applications and IT infrastructures. As before with previous ownCloud packages for UCS, ownCloud integrates it with the system's LDAP Directory and Configuration Registry (UCR). That means that the new LDAP features can also be (pre-)configured using UCR. For a good overview, we also have updated the documentation.

As you may know, the LDAP backend in ownCloud 5 got a couple of new features and some changes under the hood (see point 3 on ownCloud 5 released, Google Reader Alternative). Seven maintenance releases later, some bugs have been smashed, but an irksome quirk is left.

Today we released ownCloud 5!

I do not want to repeat what is already written in the Announcement, but I like to share some other points with you.

1. Frank blogged about this release not from a technical point of view, but in terms of a Vision, the greater idea behind ownCloud as part of the Internet as it was designed. In times when centralized solutions become more and more popular again and states fall back more and more into dark ages again with expanding surveillance ignoring more or less active their constitution (USA, Germany, Hungary are just examples) the Internet with decentralized actors is more important than before. Big hubs like Facebook or Google are easy to control, easy to manipulate. Read Frank's blog ownCloud 5 released: a vision realized, a vision expanded

Wie der eine oder andere mitbekommen hat, haben wir kürzlich ownCloud 4.5 veröffentlicht (Achtung, Englisch) mit einigen Goodies wie das Einbinden fremder Speicher wie DropBox oder Google Drive, eine bessere und schnellere Synchronisation im Zusammenspiel mit dem neuen ownCloud Client 1.1 (technische Details, Englisch), verbesserte Versionierung, eine Neufassung der Teilen-Funktionalität mitsamt feiner Rechtevergabe, bessere Import/Export Funktionalität im Kalender, möglich Synchronisation geteiltert Adressbücher, Drag'n'Drop von Kontakten zwischen Adressbüchern, Gruppen-Administratoren und ein Betrachter für impress.js Präsentationen und ein aufpoliertes LDAP Backend.

As posted before, I spent the last week at LinuxTag in Berlin. For us (ownCloud) it was pretty good. It was our first appeareance there, hence we got a lot of interest and visitors. We got higher visibility through the two booths, i suppose, but especially because of our most recent ownCloud 4 release. All in all a good combination that made ownCloud overtake Ubuntu One in Google Trends (12 months view, click to enlarge).

During LinuxTag, Frank also gave an interview to Golem, a German online magazine, about features and the history of ownCloud and the company behind.

This years LinuxTag is coming close! For the nth year in a row the German Kubuntu community will represent their distribution of choice at Europe's leading conference for Linux and Open Source. For the first time, also ownCloud will attend there, with a community and a commercial booth.

It will also be the first time for me not to be directly an the Kubuntu booth, but – thorugh my involvement – mainly there for ownCloud. We also just released ownCloud 4! We like to give you a look on our freshly baked version, meet us and drive us up the wall with questions.